American spy agencies review their misses on Ukraine, Russia
Source: Associated Press
American spy agencies review their misses on Ukraine, Russia
By NOMAAN MERCHANT and MATTHEW LEE
June 4, 2022
WASHINGTON (AP) — The question was posed in a private briefing to U.S. intelligence officials weeks before Russia launched its invasion in late February: Was Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, made in the mold of Britain’s Winston Churchill or Afghanistan’s Ashraf Ghani?
In other words, would Zelenskyy lead a historic resistance or flee while his government collapsed?
Ultimately, U.S. intelligence agencies underestimated Zelenskyy and Ukraine while overestimating Russia and its president, even as they accurately predicted Vladimir Putin would order an invasion.
But Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, did not fall in a few days, as the the United States had expected. And while American spy agencies have been credited with supporting Ukraine’s resistance, they now face bipartisan pressure to review what they got wrong beforehand — especially after their mistakes in judging Afghanistan last year.
Intelligence officials have begun a review of how their agencies judge the will and ability of foreign governments to fight. ...
-snip-
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-putin-afghanistan-zelenskyy-kyiv-9e1952d290e7f20f53c54ed8a832a650
